Hell Yeah

A new book showed up in the mail yesterday “Hell Yeah or No: what’s worth doing – a collection of thoughts about what’s worth doing, fixing faulty thinking, and making things happen” by Derek Sivers. I’ve written about his writing before and loved his book “Anything you Want.”

I ordered his new book back in August. The digital formats were delivered. And I didn’t even put it on my Kindle. Yesterday the printed book arrived and I’ve already slurped down about half of it. It is amazing. Truly, spectacularly, amazing. Sure, parts are obvious. Parts have been shared in his blog. But assembled together the thoughts, ideas, koans, compelled me to stop reading and write this post. I’m not even done yet but by page 49, this investment has been worth the wait, worth every penny, and then some more. Maybe that’s just a reflection of where I am in life today. I feel stupid to want to highlight almost every sentence in his book. But I want to. Some of the “learnings” are so obvious that I am embarrassed that I needed someone else to write them down. To give me the freedom to say “hell yeah.”

More importantly this is a book about “no” because if the inspiration isn’t “hell yeah” the answer should be “no” across everything – the work you are doing, the people you make time for, the things your thinking about, or spending time on. Just no. Simple and yet difficult. “Your actions show you what you actually want.” And saying no, makes the space in your life for doing those things that you truly want.

I want to go finish this book. Now.